Legal experts asked why the collegium, having "unanimously agreed" to reiterate his name, should wait till the others are picked.

Friday's meeting came in the backdrop of a letter written by Justice Chelameswar, the number two-judge of the SC, to the Chief Justice, strongly backing Justice Joseph.

Sources told The Telegraph that the five-member collegium of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices J. Chelameshwar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph met for over two hours on Wednesday evening. This was the collegium's third meeting since the Centre returned the file of Justice Joseph. Just to skirt its logic of other High Court chief justices senior to him being left out, the Bench also recommended elevation of three of them to the Supreme Court. Five judges of the court are scheduled to retire in 2018, Justice Chelameswar as early as June 22.

The matter of the elevation of the Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court was stalled last month, as Centre had refuted to clear his name, while Indu Malhotra, who was recommended in the same meeting, sworn in last month.

Justice Jhala's name has been approved after taking into consideration the material on record.